Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-10-29


the grotesque expectations, which have
made the tenderfoot the easy victim of
the conscienceless avarice of the cunning
Spectator.
IS PULPIT ABILITY DECLINING7
The New York lStal. SAYS great preachers
are very scarce, and asks for names of the
men to fill the places of Beecher, Bellows,
Chaplin and Washburne, for instance; or
who will be able, when the time comes, to
stand in the shoes of DR.. Storrs, DR.. Pax
ton, Robert Collyer, Dr. Ormiston and DR..
Armitage? 1t draws the conclusion that
the cause Of an apparent "dearth of tai
ent" IS due to the fact that young men of
the brainy order flock to the professions OF
law and medicine and to political life, and
besides which the student class is not now
up to the standard in its raw material
that obtained twenty years ago. This is
too violent a statement. 1t is not to be
accepted as truth, for the simple reason
that the whole intellectual level of the
people has been elevated, and the contrasts
are therefore not so strong as in the days
that called Beecher and Bellows and their
contemporary geniuses so prominently be-
fore the public. 1t is as susceptible OF
proof that there is a general excellence
and higher general grade of ability in the
pulpit to-day. This is clearly so in at
least one OF the great sects-the Methodist
Church. y class of men are called for
now by that denomination who, if they
have not greater power and broader
influence with the people, are, as 4 class,
certainly better read and more scholarly
than formerly. They have not perhaps,
the rugged yigor Of their predecessors, but
they more nearly meet the higher intel
lectual demand of the age. The last
twenty years, moreover, have not been
marked by great natural events calculated
to bring into prominence the young
men of the pulpit. 1t must not
be lost sight of that epochs OF
great genius do not tread upon each
others heels. Our contemporary should
also take the fact into account that the
great men of the pulpit named grew into
their estate, and did not spring into it.
Beecher beat the pulpit cushions in the
rude West long before he was called back
to the East by recognition of his power
About all the famous preachers were the
result Of slow growth and of environment
that was harshly FRACTIONAL, and tended to
develop powers which in an era of even
placidity would have experienced far more
difficulty in attaining place in high public
admiration. The anti-slavery agitation.
the strained relations of sections, the evo-
lutional friction in the pulpit itself, the
ferment of social and national poll
cies, all contributed to the development of
pulpit leaders and great lights. Who
shall say that if the need came the present
might not develop men in the pulpit as
capable Of commanding the attention of
the world as formerly? If the young men
of the past twenty-five years, and of the
present, have tlocked to the other profess
sions and deserted the ministry, where
have they developed marvellous greatness,
in the law, for instance? What men of
to-day rank comparably in public esti-
mate as did Choate and O'Conor and
Marshal and Story. and the army of great
geniuses who have erected monuments to
legal learning in American Jurisprudence?
Yet, because they may not be named now,
it is not to be taken for granted that there
is not eminence and genius at the bar or
on the bench, which, under different con-
ditions, would command as much attention
There is in the army of to-day no
young men eminent for military skill and
the ability to command, though there are
scores able and capable and equal to the
needs Of the nation. But if the occasion
calls, other Grants and Shermans and
Meades and Hancocks will develop. 1t
may be admitted, however, thai this
smile is not perfect, since the conflict of
arms is essential to the discovery of mill
tary genius. But in the intellectual bat
tie forever going on, we insist there should
be no disparagement of the soldiers of
reli gion, because in recent years the re-
eruits have not developed wonderfully
great Captains and commanding genius.
But the student class has given to the
present an array of pulpit talent not sec
md to that of any period, taken as whole,
or intellectual culture and scholarly
ability. The roster of strong preachers and
'eligious teachers, Of theological scholars
md cultured reasoners in the pulpit to-
lay, taken as whole, not only outnumber.
nut outrank those of the past, since the
ldvance of intellect demands higher talent
o minister to it. There may not be in the
pulpit of this decade so much individual
Intellectual greatness as in some former
periods, but there is, we hold, more collect
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